Akiyama Wood Sculpture

The works of Sachiko Akiyama, a Boston-based sculptor who works primarily with wood, will be displayed in Northern Essex Community College’s ArtSpace in the Bentley Library on the Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St., from Sept. 6 through Oct. 19.

An artist gallery talk and reception featuring Akiyama will be held in the ArtSpace on Friday, Sept. 30 at 1 p.m.

Akiyama is an assistant professor of sculpture at Boston University College of Fine Arts.

She holds a Bachelor of Art in Studio Art from Amherst College, a Master of Fine Art in Sculpture from Boston University and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

This year, Akiyama received an honorable mention in the Margo Harris Hammerschlag Direct Carving Award from the National Association of Women Artists in New York. In 2009 she was a nominee for the Foster Prize at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art.

She has exhibited at the Danforth Gallery in Framingham, the Nielsen and Bromfield galleries in Boston, and next year at the Akinofuku Museum of Art in Hamamatsu, Japan.

In describing her work, Akiyama says, “The process of woodcarving mostly with hand tools is directly tied to the meditative aspect of my work. The carving marks left unsanded on the completed sculptures reveal the slow, repetitive process of how the forms gradually emerged into being. The woodcarving process also lends itself to creating compact, self-contained forms which direct attention within the sculpture as opposed to gestural, dynamic forms that project visual energy outwardly.”

Boston Globe art critic Cate McQuaid, who named Akiyama one of 10 artist to watch in 2008, wrote “…Her sculptures have the allure and economy of a Buddha statue and the sense that there’s more going on under the surface of each figure than the viewer could dream.”

The ArtSpace is open Monday through Thursday, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

NECC offers Associate of Art degrees in illustration, visual arts, multimedia and graphic design.

For additional information contact ArtSpace program coordinator Marc Mannheimer at mmannheimer@necc.mass.edu or 978-556-3242.